Local News Headlines–5/10/2013

Severe weather yesterday afternoon caused minor flooding and other problems in Brazos and surrounding counties. There was a delay in starting last night’s College Station City Council workshop meeting due to flooding inside City Hall. Councilman John Nichols apologized for arriving late. He was part of the Chamber of Commerce delegation returning from Washington D.C. Nichols said they had a four hour delay at D/FW Airport while waiting for the storms to clear. Firefighter activity due to the weather included a structure fire off F-M 60 west of Highway 47, a transformer fire on Bryan’s extreme east city limits near Highway 30, and an oil well fire in northeast Brazos County. Freeway traffic near the Briarcrest exit in Bryan was stopped after a semi went off the road and came to a stop in the median.

A Bryan man convicted in last year’s bomb threat at Texas State University has been sentenced to prison. A federal judge in Houston ordered 22-year-old Dereon Kelley to serve two years and nine months. He was also ordered to pay nearly $16,000 in restitution and a $300 fine. Kelley was found guilty last month of hacking into his ex-girlfriend’s e-mail account to send the bomb threats. Prosecutors dropped charges against the woman after the threatening e-mails to the Texas State admissions office were traced to Kelley.

A divided College Station city council has taken the next step to build a nature center at Lick Creek Park. A four to three vote hires an architect to design an air conditioned building which would be staffed by one full time employee plus seasonal help. Mayor Nancy Berry explored the idea of an open air pavilion with Parks and Recreation Director David Schmitz. But, Councilwoman Blanche Brick supported the recommendation made by a citizens committee to build the air conditioned building. The citizens committee and city staff spent two years to get to the action taken by the council last night. The nature center was approved in a 2008 bond election.

And, it’s all systems go for the City of Bryan’s new wastewater treatment plant. Bryan Mayor Jason Bienski says the Thompson’s Creek facility will serve expanding needs on the west side, while College Station handles an expansion on the east side. He says College Station is extending sewer lines down Highway 30 to serve the east side of the twin cities. The new west side plant will be able to process two million gallons of wastewater a day and can be expanded to double that capacity.